Since when is Veteran Suicide a laughing matter? I hope this lady was FIRED, and if not, why hasn't she been?

2015-03-12T12:24:40-04:00

http://madworldnews.com/va-manager-veteran-suicide/

VA Manager Thinks Veteran Suicide Is Funny … Here is Her INFURIATING Email

According to Robin Paul, veterans killing themselves is apparently pretty hilarious, as evidenced by a series of photos she emailed her co-workers.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 12 at 2015 12:33 PM

2015-03-12T12:33:34-04:00

I know she was put on administrative leave, but that was the last I heard.

Response by CMSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 12 at 2015 12:49 PM

2015-03-12T12:49:27-04:00

Someone added the link for a petition for her to be fired. If one so chooses.

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/demand-that-robin-paul-is-fired

DEMAND THAT ROBIN PAUL IS FIRED!

Paul, who works at the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center and manages the wing for transitioning veterans known as the Seamless Transition Integrated Care (STICC) Clinic, sent out anemail during the holiday seasoncontaining pictures of th...

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 12 at 2015 1:43 PM

2015-03-12T13:43:25-04:00

Pretty sure she has been fired. I'll check for source - one of my guys was like took her 2 months to get fired? WOW THATS THE FASTEST THING THE VA HAS DONE EVER! (I chuckled, had to be there)

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 12 at 2015 2:29 PM

2015-03-12T14:29:49-04:00

This was posted a day or so ago as well. I completely disagree with the majority of what I've seen expressed about this. Very few service members haven't made worse jokes. She did not mock any service member in particular. In fact the meme didn't even address veterans. When we deny the right to make crass jokes, it's time to question who we are as Americans.

Response by LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow made Mar 12 at 2015 2:36 PM

2015-03-12T14:36:51-04:00

I think her statements were outrageous and despicable. Suicide among soldiers and veterans is a national tragedy and embarrassment. The rate among the military is significantly higher than in the general public. It is basically because DOD cannot and will not acknowledge and deal with the widespread PTSD in the ranks.

The numbers of combat tours that folks have had since Desert Storm are unprecedented. The human mind is not capable of dealing with that much stress and carnage, repeatedly, this many times. That being said, even one tour can cause significant PTSD.

It has been established scientifically (cf the thread on genetic testing vis-a-vis PTSD) that different people process this stress differently. Thus a person who had only one tour and never went outside the wire might have much worse PTSD than a person who was outside or at an OP continuously for 8 tours. Likewise, peacetime folks can have PTSD. On one of my ships we had an industrial accident and four sailors were crushed to death. Friends of theirs and folks involved in the rescue had PTSD, and they had no combat.

I do not think it is appropriate for people who are not trained to diagnose or treat PTSD to comment on the merits of others' claims. I have seen some very disparaging comments here in this thread on that vein. Yes, there are people who are goldbrickers, but let me be very clear - you CANNOT know what is going on in someone's head, just by seeing them sitting in a waiting room.

Please, leave the assessment of validity of PTSD and other related issues to professionals. Give these other folks the same benefit of the doubt that you would hope they give you.

Response by SGT Corey Franks made Mar 12 at 2015 3:33 PM

2015-03-12T15:33:43-04:00

Wooooooow

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Mar 12 at 2015 3:59 PM

2015-03-12T15:59:11-04:00

Wow. Just......wow.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 12 at 2015 4:02 PM

2015-03-12T16:02:59-04:00

This is one of those people who are so ignorant that they do not even realize or care what they are doing or saying. She obviously is not intelligent enough to recognize that her own freedoms are granted to her by those very same veterans. How did she manage to get this job in the first place? Do you not have to be a vet to work for the VA? Maybe she should be required to spend some time overseas, in the environments that caused those veterans to be in the mind set they were in. Can't help but wonder how she would handle it, or if she would still find it funny if/when she got finished with her tour.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 12 at 2015 5:30 PM

2015-03-12T17:30:33-04:00

What Ms. Robin Paul learned rather belatedly, it appears, is that if you use your Government email system to perpetuate a joke, even one intended for a festive purpose and an internal audience, it will invariably come back and bite you in the ass.

Granted, Veteran suicide is not a laughing matter. Nor is drug-seeking, the abuse of prescription medications, the inappropriate, sexually-suggestive contact with a female patient, or any of the other misbehaviors this naughty elf was caught engaging in as he made his tour of the Indianapolis VAMC. But to tar and feather Ms. Paul for this one act seems like overkill to me.

As the lead social worker who connects returning Veterans with the services they need to assist them with reintegration, by all of the accounts I have read, Ms. Paul has been highly successful in her job and is very popular with her peers and the Vets she has worked with alike. At a time when the VA cannot seem to provide adequate, qualified, and caring staff at the vast majority of it's facilities nationwide, is it really prudent to call for Ms. Paul's immediate termination over what is really a victimless infraction?

Sure, it was stupid! But she was not making light of any specific Veteran by name, rather the challenging set of circumstances that she and her peers strive to assist Vets with each and every day. For those of you who have spent time in combat, can you not recall similar bouts of twisted humor? If yours had went public, someone would likely have judged you just as harshly and demanded your relief or similar justice. Think about that.

We are so quick to be offended if we feel someone is making light of such serious issues that we don't stop to think for a moment that perhaps they are merely trying to cope with the stress of their jobs just as we once did with ours. When you think about it that way, perhaps a round of sensitivity training and a network use policy review is a more appropriate first step. Only if this behavior happens a second time should more severe penalties be considered.

Response by PV2 Alaina Norman made Mar 12 at 2015 5:51 PM

2015-03-12T17:51:42-04:00

wow, that is horrible and really not funny. I hope she looses her job for that comment because i wouldn't trust her anymore

Response by SGT Jim Z. made Mar 13 at 2015 8:33 AM

2015-03-13T08:33:49-04:00

State licensing board slaps VA emailer with complaint

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/11/state-licensing-board-slaps-va-emailer-complaint/70178998/

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 26 at 2015 3:47 AM

2015-03-26T03:47:14-04:00

no doubt she is a disgrace despicable and when she's fired she should not have a pension nothing

Response by PO3 Steven Sherrill made Mar 26 at 2015 11:20 AM

2015-03-26T11:20:57-04:00

Unfortunately for those who need it most, the VA health care system is in shambles. If one veteran commits suicide, that should be consider an unacceptable number by the VA. I understand that it is not fully preventable as some folks come to such a place that the only solution that they see is ending the suffering permanently. The best thing the VA can do is put people in place with the mentality that one loss is one too many so that they do fight as hard for the veterans as the veterans do for their country.
That being said, this creature (I will not refer to it as a person) has absolutely no business tending to anyone in need. She should go work the drive through window at McDonalds where her lack of humanity is the norm rather than the exception. I sincerely hope that the Indianapolis VA did terminate this creature.
This does shine a light on a larger problem. Mental Health issues. It is easy to spot a person who has been physically wounded in service. They show the scars of the events causing their injury. Injuries to the soul are not so easily identified as they do not leave outward symbols of their destructive nature. Worse is physical wounds are readily identifiable, and treatable. The mental wounds are neither. Until society ceases to mock mental health concerns, and starts treating it as a serious as any other injury, the suicide rate of returning veterans will not be reduced. Medicate em and forget em does not work.
Your move VA, do you want to truly help these veterans, or are you just another burreucracy?

Response by SSG John Erny made May 19 at 2015 4:56 PM

2015-05-19T16:56:08-04:00

This women looks just plain evil, give her a pink slip now!

Response by SPC Makissa Lewis made May 19 at 2015 6:26 PM

2015-05-19T18:26:00-04:00

Maybe, this can be a teachable moment to this lady and others that think like her. Because, I don't think she is alone in this mindset. Some feel since the wound is "invisible", the service member must be faking, that the service member isn't truly hurting. I hope from the publicly from these photos correct information about service members suicide can be shared.

Response by SPC Charles Brown made May 19 at 2015 7:02 PM

2015-05-19T19:02:17-04:00

It never is. this bitch needs to be gone.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 20 at 2015 1:01 AM

2015-05-20T01:01:15-04:00

People like this are mentality ill and never raised there right hand and took man oath to defend anything but the food on there plate and stuffing hotdogs and other disgusting fat body substance down there esophagus. VA has to get rid of folks like this or dismiss there current position to another less challenged position. They will never understand to defend millions and billions at home and abroad.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 23 at 2015 8:11 AM

2015-11-23T08:11:37-05:00

People like this are what is wrong with the whole VA. Do they not screen these people prior to employment? My mother-in-law just recently retired from working at a VA Nursing home and she absolutely loved her job and being around all of those veterans. I think a Soldier marrying her daughter gave her some inspiration. Either way, not all of the employees are bad. But there are those who shouldn't be working around veterans if they cant handle doing what it is they are hired to do.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Nov 23 at 2015 2:55 PM

2015-11-23T14:55:35-05:00

She acts like her value system is below a grade schoolers.